ANTIGONISH COUNTY: The Municipality of the County of Antigonish and the Town of Antigonish have heard back on an important aspect of the consolidation of the two municipal units that they claim will avoid the need for approximately $1 million in additional costs per year.
Providing information on what they’ve learned regarding policing contracts in a consolidated municipal unit, Warden Owen McCarron said following the municipality’s regular monthly council meeting on Sept. 13, that dissolving the Town of Antigonish, under consolidation, would eliminate the need for a new contract with the RCMP.
“That was certainly something we felt right from the beginning had to be looked at,” McCarron told reporters. “If we dissolve both municipalities and create a new municipality, then it was going to trigger a change in the RCMP contract from the 70/30 funding formula that currently exists that the town and county enjoy, to a 90/10.”
This means that the consolidated municipal unit would pay 70 per cent of the contract, and the federal government would cover the remaining 30 per cent.
If both councils decided in favour of consolidation, McCarron said it would be called the Municipality of the County of Antigonish, allowing them to keep their current funding formula.
When consolidation was first reviewed by both councils, it involved the dissolution of the town and county and the creation of a consolidated regional municipality.
“At the end of the day, whether you currently live in the town or county, we all call Antigonish home,” Mayor Laurie Boucher said in a Sept. 12 release. “The way to move forward and avoid the increase in costs is to dissolve the town and simultaneously restructure the county where the two units enter as equal partners to create a consolidated organization.”
Further engagement with the provincial and federal governments, as well as independent legal counsel, identified that a new municipality would require a new contract for RCMP services which would result in additional costs with no changes to the level of service for the Antigonish area, the press release noted.
“Based on what was presented to us by our government partners and legal counsel, it is as simple as a name to avoid a significant unnecessary increase in policing costs,” Boucher said in the release. “The town will always be the town and our history will remain strong and proud, that I know for sure. If we move forward, we are doing it together, to build a stronger Antigonish as partners with equal opportunities.”
When asked if there were any other areas of concern that are somewhat of an unknown that could derail consolidation, the warden suggested there weren’t.
“No, that certainly was the one big ticket item that really had a lot of concern, because it had a significant cost, that $1 million cost, we understood that would be too much to ask the community to absorb,” McCarron said. “We don’t see any other big red flag issues that step out. However, we need to talk about community identity, how we deliver service, and those are all pieces councils need to be comfortable with.”